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Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Oh my. Where have I been?

It's been too long, y'all. For various reasons, I abandoned my little blog two summers ago. I wrote my last post likely the night prior to diving into 4th grade. To say I love 4th grade and my team is an understatement. I have benefitted from teaching 160 amazing children. It has been a fulfilling two years.But, oh.my.word. has it been a journey of growth both personally and professionally. Professionally, changing to fourth grade language arts was like throwing myself in a blender. My first year, I taught novel studies and developed my lessons personally, with a little help from the goddesses and gods at TpT, and wore myself out! It was a truly great year, though. Last year we implemented a new reading series. As I was asked to be on the team to procure the new reading series, I thought I should give it a try. I do love it, but deciphering all the resources was a huge task. Are we ever given enough training with new resources? Um, no.Personally, I was experiencing pain in my joints (especially my knuckles), complete exhaustion, irritability, and a host of other fun symptoms last summer. After going to my general practitioner who sent me to a rheumatologist, being tested for everything and possibly being diagnosed with lupus, and finally about to be lumped into the group of fibromyalgia sufferers, I took my health into my own hands. I cut out gluten, most dairy, and added sugar in November. My symptoms slowly disappeared. Now, staring at 50 in December, I can honestly say I feel better than I have in decades. I dropped 10 pounds purely by dietary changes. Please feel free to contact me with any questions if you have similar symptoms.So, now that I feel my head is above water and I can receive ideas as inspiration instead of beating myself up that I can't keep up, I have delved back into Bloglovin' with as much wonder as I experienced two years ago. It felt like reconnecting with old friends. I also realized I had 265 comments I had never read nor knew I had. It was like receiving a giant bloggy bear hug. So, my little blog lived on without me at the helm.I am back with many amazing ideas to share. When a great lesson turned out to be even better than envisioned, I would think, "I should blog about that!" Now I will. I am back.

1 comment:

Welcome back! I also took a break and joined back in this summer. It was a little overwhelming at first, but it felt really good to be back. I'm so glad your health has improved and look forward to hearing about your journey in 4th grade.AlisonRockin' and Lovin' Learnin'

I will be teaching 3 classes of 4th grade ELA at a Catholic school in Virginia. I am beyond excited as I have missed having my own classroom the two years I have spent as the Reading Resource Teacher! I have two sons, 18 and 14 and a puppy who are the joys of my life! I will watch my oldest head off to Old Dominion University in the fall to study Economics and Marketing. My youngest rides to school with me each morning and will be in the 8th grade.